Yugoslav bosses look for a way out short of actually stopping the war

The first week of U.N.-imposed economic sanctions did nothing to halt the fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where Serb forces have seized more than two- thirds of the territory and are bombarding the capital, Sarajevo. But the cutoff of trade, including oil, did make officials in the rump state of Yugoslavia squirm publicly.

In Montenegro, the only former federal republic that remains linked with Serbia and thus also subject to sanctions, President Momir Bulatovic implied that those ties may be a mistake. "We cannot endure months of sanctions," he said. "Change is possible."